My garden is often visited by lots of different animals and insects. Butterflies of all sorts love my gardens for the variety of plants and flowers.The bright caterpillar at left is the caterpillar for the Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius). They love plants which belong to the fennel/dill/Queen Anne's lace type. Here, he is feeding on a red fennel which freely seeds itself in my garden...a little too freely, but I keep it around to feed these brilliant creatures.
Yesterday, one had the misfortune to take a swim in the pool. We fished him out and I carefully placed him on a daylily to let him dry out.
He sat for a little while and dried his wings. Notice the brilliant orange and blue on the side view which doesn't show up on the back of his wings. And yes, he is a him. The females don't have the yellow like this, but have more blue. There seems to be a bit of variation in patterning.
No doubt he will show up in a future quilt.
